“There’s nothing in my life I’d rather have than a Derby horse,” Hornung said. “All my life I’ve been a racetrack buff. But much as I want to be in that race, I can’t do it. I said no. The horse is not ready to run a mile and a quarter.”

Less than 48 hours after Titletown Five ran a fading fourth in the Derby Trial, attrition opened a spot in America’s most celebrated cavalry charge. With Todd Pletcher formally eliminating Winning Cause from Derby consideration, Bob Baffert withdrawing his last two candidates and California-based Tiz a Minister scratched by a sore foot, the field of probables had narrowed to 19 horses.

This left one vacancy in the Derby’s starting gate, and one deeply conflicted Golden Boy. For as much as Paul Hornung accomplished in football — a Heisman Trophy, a Hall of Fame bust, and those five NFL titles with the Green Bay Packers — he’s a Louisville guy with a long attachment to the city’s signature event.

He has also entered the 78th year of an eventful life aware that his immortality is likely figurative rather than literal, and that he gets no guarantee of another opportunity to Run for the Roses.

Yet as much as such a man might be susceptible to Derby fever, to allow excitement to get the best of his brain, Hornung reluctantly took a pass Monday and insisted he would not reverse his field prior to Wednesday’s 10 a.m. entry deadline.

He has put the horse before the heart.

“The horse has got to come first,” Hornung said, pausing momentarily under the weight of those words. “Damn, I can’t believe I’m turning down a shot at the Derby.”

With one victory in seven career starts, and a ninth-place finish in last month’s Louisiana Derby, Titletown Five is not a colt that inspires much confidence. Like so many Derby starters, it would have entered the race perceived as an expensive exercise in vanity rather than a serious threat. And, to a certain sort of horseman, it would have been worth it just to be part of the post parade.

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“I don’t discourage any of them,” said D. Wayne Lukas, who trains Titletown Five and has saddled more Derby horses (and more dubious Derby horses) than any man in history. “I don’t think you can ask these clients to spend upwards of half a million dollars and discourage them on anything. I never have. If they want the dream, I’m bulletproof ...

“I can handle it. I lead them over there because it’s their dream. They put up their money. I’m going to make it the best I can.”

This was Monday morning, outside Lukas’ backside barn at Churchill Downs. Though the Hall of Fame trainer’s history would suggest a Derby obsession — he has four winners among a record 45 starters — he claims to have Run for the Roses reluctantly in numerous instances.

“Only about 10 or 12 of them, if you really hooked me up to a lie detector test, (did) I want to lead over there,” Lukas said. “With Deeds Not Words (last in the 1997 Derby), I had no vote.”

With Shy Tom, 10th in a 15-horse field in 1989, Lukas says his input consisted of responding, “Really?” to owner William T. Young’s declaration, “Wayne, we’re going to the Derby.”

Contacted Monday afternoon by Churchill Downs’ Darren Rogers, Lukas initially ruled Titletown Five out of Saturday’s Derby, but began wavering after broaching the subject with Hornung.

Hornung said he asked Lukas to make the decision. When the trainer declined, Hornung sought the advice of other horsemen and then called his wife.

“I love the horses too much,” Hornung said later. “I get a lot of joy out of them. And you’ve got to do what’s right. You’re really taking a chance on hurting a horse on running him when it’s not ready.”

It had to be hard, and it could get harder still. What if Paul Hornung has passed up his best chance at the chance of a lifetime? What if he never finds his Derby horse?